SOE using us as marketing lab rats

Rolfski · 2013-11-30, 01:00 PM

Deliberately using your customers as marketing lab rats by frequently worsening the daily/bundle/SC deals over the year to see how much more money you can squeeze out of them, is kind of insulting and not a smart thing to do imo. Not to mention the effect of people refusing to spend money any more because they were used to better deals.

If you want to get more money out of your customers, make them more happy and give them more options to spend money (merchandise, weapon cosmetic slots, more PlayerStudio item types, etc.) but don't screw them over.

If a game still in pre-alpha development like Star Citizen already ships shitloads of t-shirts and mouse mats to 99 countries, why oh why does SOE such a poor job of selling their universe?

Edit: The original tweet I used to illustrate my point was confusing and not helping this discussion, so I removed it.

Neurotoxin · 2013-11-30, 01:06 PM

Business model.

Also, every marketing team is constantly experimenting with their customers. This isn't new or unique.

MaxDamage · 2013-11-30, 01:14 PM

Yeah, business is business.

Rolfski · 2013-11-30, 01:44 PM

It's business al right but is it smart business? Imo there are smarter ways to increase revenue and customer loyalty than experimenting with blatant price increases.

Ghoest9 · 2013-11-30, 02:11 PM

this is the dumbest whine ever

Plaqueis · 2013-11-30, 02:58 PM

Originally Posted by Ghoest9

this is the dumbest whine ever

Says the guy whining about slugs...

Blynd · 2013-11-30, 03:08 PM

Originally Posted by Rolfski

https://twitter.com/PS2DailyDeals/st...37494360154112

Deliberately using your customers as marketing lab rats, decreasing their value for money right in front of their faces to see how much more money you can squeeze out of them, is kind of insulting and not a smart thing to do imo.

If you want to get more money out of your customers, make them more happy and give them more options to spend money (merchandise, weapon cosmetic slots, more PlayerStudio item types, etc.) but don't screw them over.

If a game still in pre-alpha development like Star Citizen already ships shitloads of t-shirts and mouse mats to 99 countries, why oh why does SOE such a poor job of selling their universe?

I think someone needs their reading glasses on.

Its a 70%discount they are doing a black Friday sale like many stores are you muppet

KesTro · 2013-11-30, 03:29 PM

Originally Posted by Plaqueis

Says the guy whining about slugs...

Haha, he got you there. Weather it's smart business or not there isn't much we can do about it except hold onto our money until a sale worthwhile comes along. This shouldn't be too different from what a lot of us have been doing since last December.

Ghoest9 · 2013-11-30, 04:09 PM

Originally Posted by Plaqueis

Says the guy whining about slugs...

When you think its uncool to bitch about game balance - that means you have moved on from the game at a meta level and probably will stop playing soon if you havent already.
So long.

ringring · 2013-11-30, 04:10 PM

Well 70% off sounds better to me than 50% but, if you say it's wrong I'll go along with it. .. . . ... .. ..

ChipMHazard · 2013-11-30, 04:35 PM

Important to note that the tweet in question was perhaps worded a bit strangely, but it actually mentioned a 70% discount as opposed to the regular 30/50%.
Well, this is how it works. You may find yourself going down in price if you find that not enough are buying what you're trying to sell.
I can certainly see why someone would be miffed about having paid X amount for Y and then seeing Y being sold for less some months down the road.

Ghoest9 · 2013-11-30, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by ChipMHazard

I can certainly see why someone would be miffed about having paid X amount for Y and then seeing Y being sold for less some months down the road.

Why?
Did paying the early premium not get many months of use you would not have had if you waited?

I get that people feel bad when a sale happens a few days after they buy something.
But the general concept of prices going down over time as demand drops is pretty basic and ubiquitous.

ChipMHazard · 2013-11-30, 05:07 PM

It is indeed. I can still see why people would be miffed about it when it comes to ingame items, even if I don't feel the same way myself.
There are people who just keep waiting in order to get items on sales, but I would rather purchase what I want when I want/need it than wait for a cheaper price.

Rolfski · 2013-11-30, 05:48 PM

Originally Posted by Blynd

I think someone needs their reading glasses on.

Its a 70% discount they are doing a black Friday sale like many stores are you muppet

You've actually got a legit point here. Because of that 70% off number, the tweet does a confusing job of explaining my real point: They're deliberately experimenting with prices for the worse. Daily deals have actually become worse deals now (it's not 50% off bet less now) and so have become bundle sales and SC sales over the course of the year.

Giving players increasingly less value to see how far they can go just doesn't seem the smart thing to do. Not only will it for sure piss off quite a few players, there are still so many more other options out there to earn more money from us customers, which SOE so far just fails to execute on.

Edit: It was suggested on reddit that the daily deals tweet is not from SOE but actually from a player so I removed the link from the starter topic to keep the discussion focussed on price increases.

Snoopy · 2013-11-30, 08:29 PM

Originally Posted by Ghoest9

this is the dumbest whine ever

I think you hold that title.